USA > California > San Benito County > History of San Benito County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, and mines : with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 15
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The idea of threshers providing their crews with " grub," and in fact supplying all the necessaries sufficient for the carrying out of their threshing contract, is giving entire satisfaction to
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THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA.
our farmers, and ere long all threshing outfits will be carried on under the same excellent idea, doing away with the vexa- tions worry to the farmer's wife in preparing food for the " hor- rid threshers."
Many farmers stack the grain as fast as cut, and afterwards thresh from the stack. this plan has allvantages but we are not sufficiently posted to explain them. A derrick is used to carry the straw from the stack to the separator. The derrick is fitted with two handy Jacksou forks, which are of a conven- ient size, and by use of horse power are operated and the straw fed to the machine, There are also sometimes traveling stables, with mangers and hay racks well arranged, giving room for sixteen to twenty-four horses to feed around.
The great separators which have of late years been intro- «luced into this State have beeu marvels of mechanical skill and ingenuity, until one would imagine that the skilled me- chanie had left nothing undone in the coustruction of these masterpieces of workmanship.
NEW METHODS OF HARVESTING.
Yet the above plan of harvesting grain is about to be super- ceded. The writer of this was last season (1880) traveling through one of the immense wheat fields of Stanislaus county. We say immense, as we had been traveling for hours through a vast field of wheat. In every direction was wheat; not a house, tree, or object of any kind had been in sight for a long time-only wheat, wheat. At last our eyes caught sight of a queer looking object in the distance, and curiosity as well as a desire to see something besides wheat, led us towards it.
We were astonished at the sight, and looked long in wonder and amazement at a combined header and thresher. Twenty- four horses were pushing this immense machine over the ground, and as it passed along dropped sacks filled with wheat. The horses were six abreast-twelve each side of the tongue --- and the swath cut was, we judge, thirty feet wide. The grain heads in the meantime, instead of passing into the header- wagou, went directly into the separator, and the grain was sacked and thrown off. It was worth a long journey to see this wonderful machine with its twenty-four horses trained like circus animals, and all moving at the command of the man " at the wheel" who gnides the header by a tiller attached to a wheel at the end of the tongue, which acts as a rudder for this " agricultural ship." While watching its operations the writer wondered if on his next trip that way he would not also see the grist-mill attached and the machine throwing off sacks of flour !
A PURELY CALIFORNIAN SCENE.
Only in California could these vast harvesting operations be carried on in this manner. In the summer-that is from May
to November-there is no rain. People in the East will bear this last fact in mind, as it has a material influence upon farul- ing operations. In harvest time there is no fear of damage to the crop from a shower, or its destruction by a storm; no labor is lost on account of rainy days; we can dispense with barns and cribs; the crop can remain in the field in sacks until sold ; the grain when ready to cut, in a few days becomes so dry that it can be threshed, sacked, and shipped with safety, and, instead of moulding on the voyage to Liverpool, gains in weight by absorbing moisture from a more humid atmosphere; and that in case of necessity, the farmer can send his erop to market the day after he cuts it. It is usual to send off several cargoes to Europe before July. The piles of sacks full of wheat lying in the fields in June and July, and similar piles heaped up near the railroad stations in August, September, and October, are among the notable sights in the agricultural dis- triets of California, but shock, stacks, and barns full of un- threshed grain are rare. The wheat of California is hard, white, dry, and strong in gluten, and the surplus is mostly shipped to England, where it is prized as among the best there obtainable.
Nearly a thousand vessels enter the port of San Francisco in a year, and a large number of these are required to carry the wheat to Europe. Some $15,000,000 is annually received for wheat alone, and it is shipped to the following countries, arranged in order according to the amount which was sent them: Great Britain, Belgium, France, Australia. Spain, South America, New Zealand, China, Germany, Hawaiian Islands, British Columbia, Tahiti, and Mexico. By this list it is seen that we contribute breadstuffs to nearly every country of the globe.
California Schools.
CALIFORNIA has two thousand seven hundred and forty-three public schools, with an attendance of one huudred and forty- four thousand eight hundred and five, and two hundred and sixteen thousand four hundred and sixty-four children on the census roll. In the year 1878-9 there was $2,285,732.38 paid to teachers as salaries. Since the organization of California as a State, she has paid for the support of schools thirty-eight and a half millions of dollars. Not a bad showing.
The educational system of the Stato has received much atten- tion and care from those in authority. Our public schools and higher institutions of learning are liberally endowed, and geue- rally efficient. The profession of teaching is held in high repute, aud teachers command good salaries. We are justified, we think, in saying that the system of public schools estab- lished by the laws of California is in no respect inferior to the best in any other State in the Union.
A few years before the discovery of gold in 1848, several
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THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA.
American families attracted by the growing commercial impor- tance of the harbor were induce l to settle upon these shores, and to lay the foundation of the great metropolis of the West. True to the traditions of their ancestors, their first care was to organ- ize a school for the instruction ol their children.
FIRST YANKEE SCHOOL-MASTER.
In April, 1847, the first English school was opened in a small shanty on the block bounded by Dupont, Broadway, Pacific and Stockton streets. Here were collected from twenty to thirty pupils, who then comprised nearly all the children of the city. It was a private institution and was supported by. tuition fees from the pupils, and by the contributions of the citizens. It was taught by Mr. Marsten, who is entitled to the honor of being the first Yankee school-master upon the Pacific coast. Although he continued his school but a few months, he per- formed an important part as a pioneer in establishing our schools, which should cause his name to be held in grateful remembrance by every friend of education.
FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL ..
Late in the fall of 1847 active measures were first taken by the citizens of San Francisco to organize a public school, which resulted in erecting a humble one-story school-house on the south-west part of Portsmouth square, fronting on Clay street, near where it joins Brenham place. An engraving of this first public school-house in San Francisco has been preserved in the " Annals of San Francisco." The history of this old building is cherished by the carly pioncers with many pleasing associa- tions. Here germiuated every new enterprise; here the town meetings and political conventions were held; here the churches first held their gatherings, and the first public amusements were given. After the discovery of gold it was deserted for school purposes, and was used as a court-house under Judge Almond. It was afterwards degraded into a public office and used as a station-house until it was demolished by the city in 1850. It is to be regretted that this first public school struct- ure of San Francisco could not have been preserved in some of our publie grounds, so that the future citizen might contrast this humble commencement with the beautiful school edifices which will yet adorn every bill-side and valley of our fair and expanding city.
Ou the 3d of April, 1848, the school was opened in the build- ing described, under the instruction of Mr. Thomas Douglass, now residing in Sau Jose, an able and zealous pioneer in the cause of education. He was appointed teacher by the Board of School Trustees, at a salary of $1,000 per month. The population at this time was eight hundred and twelve, of whom sixty were children of a suitable age for attending school. Although it was a public school under the control of regularly
elected officers, it was mainly supported by tuition from the pupils. The success and usefulness of this school were soon paralyzed by the great discovery of gold, which for a time depopulated the town, leaving the teacher minus pupils, trus- tecs and salary. He therefore closed his school and joined in the general exodus for the mines, the new El Dorado of untokl wealth.
In the general excitement and confusion which followed the first rush for the " diggings," the school enterprise was for a time abandoned. The education of the children, who were rapidly increasing from the Hoodl of emigration pouring into San Francisco, from every part of the world, was entirely neglected until the 23d of April, 1849, when the Rev. Albert Williams opened a school in his church.
In October, 1849, Mr. J. C. Pelton and wife opened a school in the basement of the Baptist church, on Washington, near Stoekton street, and in July, 1850, the " Happy Valley School" was opened in a little dilapidated builling, in what was then called " Happy Valley."
FIRST YANKEE SCHOOL-MARM.
In January, 1848, Mrs. Mary A. Case located in Santa Cruz and opened a school in her own house, and taught two terins, when the discovery of gold broke up her school by the removal of families. Mrs. Case was in 1879 still living in Santa Cruz. She was a native of Connecticut, and came to California in 1847. Her husband, B. A. Case, died in Long Valley, Califor- nia, in 1871.
THE STATE UNIVERSITY,
Situated at Berkeley, Alameda county, is endowed by the vari- ous gifts of Congress with Seminary, Building and Agricul- tural College lands; also with a State endowment from the sale of tide lands, which yieldls an annual income of $52,000. Its production fund is larger than that of the University of Michi- gan. It has an able corps of Professors and instructors, some of whom have a national reputation. The names of three hundred and thirty-six students are upon its catalogue, dis- tributed in the various departments of science and art. Its buildings and grounds are extensive, and for beauty of situa- tion, or the thoroughness of its instruction in literature and science, it cannot be excelled. Its Medical Department is in the city of San Francisco. The University is free to both sexes.
The Normal School, at San Jose, is one of the most admir- ably managed of our State Institutions. It has an excellent faculty and over four hundred students. An additional Normal School is about to be erected at Los Angeles.
California has, besides these State Institutions, fifteen colleges endowed or maintained by the different religious denominations. Santa Clara College, over which the learned and accom-
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EARLY MAILS AND OVERLAND EXPRESS.
plished Father Varsi presidles, is the wealthiest, and has the largest number of students.
Mills' Seminary for young ladies, near Oakland, is confess- edly the leading institution on the Pacific coast, It occupics a retired and beautiful site in the foot-hills, and combines all the advantages of the best country and city schools. The Califor- nia Military Academy at Oakland, is an institution held in high repute by its numerous patrons.
The Pony Express.
THIS was an enterprise started in 1860, by Majors Russell & Co., of Leavenworth, Kansas, to meet the pressing business wants of the Pacific coast. It will be remembered that the usual time made on the mail service, by steamer, between New York and San Francisco was about twenty-six days. The first Overland mail-which arrived in San Francisco, October 10, 1858-carried it from St. Louis, Missouri, via Los Angeles, in twenty-three days, twenty-one hours. The Pony Express- which left St. Joseph, Missouri, and San Francisco, simulta- neonsly, April 3, 1860-succeeded in transporting it through safely on its first trip, in ten days; on its second, in fourteen days; third, nine days; fourth, ten days; fifth, nine days ; sixth, nine days; a distance of one thousand nine hundred and ninety- six miles. This rapid transmission of business correspondence was of incalculable value to business men in those days.
This service, we can readily see, required courage and endur- ance, as well as enterprise and the expenditure of large sums of money. The moment the ferry-hoat touched land on the west- ern shore of the Missouri river, the pony expressman mounted his horse; and by day or by uight, in starlight or darkness ; whether sun-dried or soaked, suow-covered or frozen ; among friends or through foes; be be lonely or merry-onward he hastened, until, at the thrice-welcomed station, he leaped from his saddle to rest. Here another was ready, whose horse, like himself, had been waiting, perhaps, without shelter; and with a cheery " Good night, boys," he galloped off, and was soon lost in the distance. He rides on alone, over prairies and mount- ains; whether up hill or down; on rough ground or smooth, until he descrics in the distance the goal of his hopes, and the station is reached.
To realize even partially the dangers of this service, we need only glance at the newspapers of the day, where such items as the following were chronicled : "The pony expressman has just returned from Cold Springs-driven back by the Indians." " The men at Dry Creek station have all been killed, and it is thought the Robert's Creek station has been destroyed. Eight animals were stolen from Cold Springs Mouday." "Bartholo- mew Riley died last night from a wound received at the Cold Springs station, on the 16th of May. Just arrived from the Indian battle-ground, at Pyramid Lake, tired as he was, he volunteered to ride to the next change, then, a distance of eighty-
five miles, where he received the wound of which he died." "Six Pike's Peakers found the body of the station-keeper inutilated, and all the animals missing, at Simpson's Park."
These few incidents will readily illustrate the stuff of which the pony expressmen and station-keepers were made; as well as the dangers and privations to which they were exposed. To tell of the losses in men from the Indians, and of horses and other property, both from volunteers as well as Indians, with the many thrilling adventures of those who participated in this daring enterprise, however interesting, would make too long a recital.
Yerba Buena, or San Francisco.
YERBA BUENA was changed to San Francisco, January, 1847, by an ordinance of the magistrate, Edwin Bryant, Alcalde. At this time there were only fifty houses in the place, most of which were small, single-storied buildings, chiefly constructed of adobe. In April of this year the population was three hun- dred and seventy-five, without counting the Indians, wbo were at this time few in numher. In May, 1847, a public meeting was called to consider the propriety of erecting a church, and a committee was appointed for that purpose. The first grand illumination in San Francisco was on May 28th, of the same ycar, and was in honor of General Zachary Taylor's victory over the Mexicans at Buena Vista. In July two anniversaries were celchrated in San Francisco in a becoming manner; one being in commemoration of the independence of the nation, on the 4th ; the other that of Conquest day, or the independence of California, on the 7th of the month.
The first steamboat was hrought from Sitka hy Mr. Leids- dorff, in November of that year, and after making a trip on the bay, sailed two days subsequently for Santa Clara.
In January, 1848, at the village of Yerba Buena was then a collection of adobes, built around the public square we now call " the plaza." The waters of the bay extended as far as Mont- gomery street, where the Bank Exchange now stands, and a few whalers and small coasting schooners lay at anchor three hundred yards from shore, about whicre the post-office now stands on Battery street.
There were also American settlements at Sonoma and Napa, composed of farmers who had emigrated from the Western States a few years before; and here and there arose along the borders of the tule the smoke from the hut of a lonely trapper of beaver. These, with the ranches of the old Dons, their cor- rals and the inevitable adobe dwellings, surrounded by innum- erable cattle and horses, made up the sum of what there was of civilized and semi-civilized life in California. Now and then a vessel put into the Bay of Montercy, or Sau Francisco, or San Diego to load with hides, or a whaler for repairs, dropping a few Mexican dollars or doubloons, which were thic enrreucy of the country.
الشكل.
PHOTO. J. REDWAY
Buy respectfully K6
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PERSONAL AND HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES
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SAN BENITO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
BY A PIONEER .==
A Few Introductory Words.
WHEN the first Napoleon was fighting under the shadows of the Egyptian pyramids, he feared that there was nothing, either in his presence, or the history of his past achievements, to inspire his soldiers with enthusiasm, and believing that . inspiration was as necessary to the French soldier, as gun- powder or the bayonet, he appealed to his armny in that memor- able phrase, " Soldiers of France, remember that centuries are now looking down upon you!" And yet, the comparatively obscure general was then dreaming of the day, when be hoped to be, as he afterwards described his great adversary, the Iron Duke, as " too great a man to be a subject."
So it is, in some respects, with San Benito county.
As one of the political sub-divisions of the great State of Cal- iforuia, San Benito county is too young in years, and her nat- ural resources are in too uudeveloped a condition to have such a history, that could pretend to interest the casual reader, or be a source of much gratified pride to her own citizens, But her citizens may with pardonable pride, and without making too much of a discount on the future, look forward, to the not greatly distant day, when their county will take rank with some of her more forward sisters. Her rivers teem with min- eral wealth, yet undeveloped, her hills and valleys yield abun- dantly in pastoral and agricultural remuneration. Nature has done for us her part generously and well; all that is required in addition, is time and well-directed energy to make the county blossom as the rose, and abundantly reward the worker with mineral and agricultural wealth. And if this be not enough he may appeal to the fact that the soil of his county is one of the battle grounds whereon civilization first met barbarism, and conquered it.
The reader is therefore duly cautioned, that if he expects to find in the following pages of the brief sketch of the history of San Benito county, anything that will rise to the dignity of his- tory, when measured by the greatness of the actors, or the general importance of the events recorded, he will search in vain, and he is referred to other and more fruitful subjects of history and biography. But I feel convinced that the citizen of San Benito county whose home is here, and who expects that iu the end, his dust will commingle with her generous soil, and who hopes that the hallowed spot where he will find his last rest will be kept green by those of his blood, who will take his place and work as he has wrought, who, having traveled from afar, and seen many lands, will be satisfied to exclaim with Virgil's wanderer,-
" Haec ait patria. mea,"
Will be satisfied to examine beneath the surface to learn the motives that actuated the pioneers of a hundred years ago, who, few in numbers, but strong in the faith that was in tbem, undertook to conquer California, not with the strong hand and the sword, but with the word of the Master whom they served.
To such, I feel convinced, a brief account of the early bis- tory of the territory that now constitutes the county of San Benito, and of the struggles of the early Franciscan Friars, who reclaimed its aboriginal inhabitants from barbarism, will not be wholly devoid of interest. I am well advised of the difficulties that will confrout the chronicler of early events, when he enters upon the domain of history, that period in the history of this section of California wbich extends beyond the inemory of man.
EFFECT OF THE MISSIONARIES' LABORS.
The missionary friars in Upper California were eitber oblivious of, or indifferent to, the fact that they were sowing in and progress, that would survive the race of Indians, whose
There is little of the soil of San Benito county that is not fragrant with inspiring memories of the past. True the actors were humble, but their decds merit more than a passing notice | tbe wilderness the seeds of an empire of civilization, wealth from the chronicler of local events.
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THE BIRTH OF SAN BENITO COUNTY.
" untutored minds " were the lode-stone that first attraeted civ- ilization to California.
So it often happens that causes wonderfully insignificant in themselves produce, without design, effeets marvelously great and beneficial to the human family.
It is often questioned, if the Indian gained mueh in the bar- gain, by which he gave his rude habits of the barbarous state in exchange for the discipline of Christianity, and the viees of civilization.
Let this problem be solved, by those who are willing to speculate upon it, as it may, it is manifest that (speaking temporally) the Indian was the loser, and the white man the gainer. The Indian lost his country, his existenee; even his race in California is now well-nigh a matter of history only. There are so few of the aboriginals or their descendants now living, that they may be elassed with the extinet races.
The friars were likewise indifferent to the fact, that those who would succeed them would glean ardently but unsuecess- fully, for incidents and events in their lives that might illus- trate the character of their undertaking, and afford a measure by which their efforts and the result might be judged.
With that singleness of purpose that was peculiar to the early missionary in California, they seem to have devoted themselves solely to the reclamation of the Indian; and there is nothing in the California mission records like a diary, or detailed account of the ineidents of their lives of labor.
No event seems to have been worthy of record and perpetu- ation, unless it bore some intimate relationship to the spiritual welfare of the Incban.
True, there is an occasional brief reference in a marginal or foot-note, to circumstances connected with, or characteristics of, some tribe or nation of Indiaus, but as a rule these remarks are too brief to be of much bistorieal value.
LITTLE KNOWLEDGE FROM EARLY RECORDS.
In such of the mission records as I have had the privilege of examining (and I understand that the entries in all the books, from San Diego to Sonoma, are of the same general character), I failed to find any reference, that would be of particular advan- tage to the historian, to the habits, temper, disposition, relig- ious belief, or form of worship of the aboriginal natives of Upper California.
A record of every baptism, birth, marriage, and death, was entered with the most scrupulous fidelity and exaetness, not omitting the tribal relation, "gentile name," parentage, sponsors, ete., while the more interesting faet (to this genera- tion at least), of the foundation of the mission, and its final completion and dedication, with the impressive ceremonies that we know were wont to be observed, was passed by with a bare mention.
Perhaps the good fathers feared that the diablillos, as Fr.
Junipero Serra ealled them, would contest their right to labor in the Lord's vineyard, and so, were indisposed to waste time, or undertake any other task than the, to them, all-important work of Christianizing the savage.
It may be further urged in palliation of this apparent neg- lect, that the missionaries valued the land only for the oppor- tunities it afforded them of making converts. They little dreamed hat the mother countries, Spain and Mexico, to which they owed allegiance, and for whose eivilization and comforts they doubtless often yearned, would, before the lapse of a century be out-ranked in wealth and political importance by California, the despised, and to Europeans, almost terra incognita.
Whatever view may be held with respect to the supposed benefits aeeruiny to the Indian from Christianity, and however severely the modes of the missionaries may be criticised, the faet that they were honest, patient, and sincere in their work, that they at times treated their proselytes with severity, as children are corrected, but never with injustice or cruelty, that they braved death and often met it, at the hands of the objects of their solieitude, will stand as an enduring monument to their glory as long as valorous deeds shall continue to be named with commendation.
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